Share this article

Around a million transgender people live in Brazil, but many of them face deep-seated prejudice and resort to selling sex just to earn a living.

She meets Barbara, a successful dancer and the first transgender woman to lead the Rio Carnival. However despite her fame, Barbara admits that she struggled to make ends meet once the parade is over.

Stacey Dooley meets club owner Oscar Maroni (pictured) who owns 33 apartments with mirrored walls which he rents out to prostitutes

Barbara's life may appear glamorous to an outsider but she has to support her grandmother with whom she lives with in a working class neighborhood on the outskirts of Rio.

With 90 per cent of transgender women turning to sex work Barbara reveals there is not often another option.

She tells Stacey: 'I'm scared but I still go, I don't go as often as I did before but I still go. We don't have enough to eat at home or we haven't paid a bill so I'll go because its the only choice I have.

'If someone sees a trans they're already thinking even if (she) isn't a sex worker they should be doing sex work because its a label we've been given.

'I once asked a friend if I could be a cleaning assistant cleaning the floors. He laughed at me and said "Barbara, you don't look like a cleaner." And i said "I need to work". We want social equality.'

However, Stacey's research reveals that it is not just transgender sex workers that fall victim to the toils of prostitution.

Transgender Barbara said people in Brazil think she should do sex work because 'its a label' transpeople have been given

Stacey discovers that the biological women face just as many difficulties on a regular basis. She visits Rio's red light district Villa Mimosa where up to a thousand girls work every night controlled by a local armed militia who operate above the law.

The documentary takes a look inside one of the bars where the girls operate with the owner letting out ten rooms in 20 minute slots to the women.

Stacey meets a mother-of-three children who she cares for during the week before heading to Villa Mimosa at the weekend.

She explains that she was once sleeping with up to 30 different men a night in the bar's cramped conditions in order to live, but the bar's owner Carla says that working within her building is far safer than if they were to walk the streets.

She said: 'If this place were to lose its license the girls would go onto the streets risking their lives and putting up with a load of shit they might even die because clients on the street do whatever they want with women but here they feel safe.'

On the other end of the spectrum is the luxury hotel for sex workers called Bahamas Night Club run by businessmen Oscar Maroni.

The building houses 33 apartments walled with mirrors where clients can be entertained by the women who work there.

Stacey Dooley, who presents the programme on BBC Three, met two male sex workers who got hands on

Oscar, who was unable to attend the original BBC3 interview because he was 'having a threesome', views his establishment as the Disneyland of prostitution.

He said: 'In the club you wont find unhappy people. You'll see girls looking at the door willing clients to come in.

'They are women who are free and open. Sex is good healthy and hot. It doesn't matter what form it takes.'

However, Stacey discovers that for some of the women working at Oscar's club, this isn't the case.

Lara has been working at the club for three months, but says that the decision to do so came as a last resort.

She tells Stacey: 'I had a stationary store and I didn't get the money to pay the rent. I don't want to be here all my life.'

Stacey met sex workers as well as club owners in Turkey, Russia and Brazil where sex work is prevalent

Stacey, with trans sex worker Derya in Turkey, found many sex workers were hoping to build a future with the money they receive from selling their bodies

Lara reveals that she has a nine-year-old daughter and a boyfriend, neither of whom have any idea about her profession.

She said: 'Every night when I lay down with the guy I just think "oh my God what am I doing here?" I just want to stay with my boyfriend I don't want to stay here all night thinking about making money and lay down with the old guys and ugly guys. My head is just a mess.'

However, Oscar is quick to defend his treasured club: 'I view the profession of the girls as a profession. Every profession has its pros and cons at the Bahamas club the prostitute themselves to buy things to pay for their BMWs, Louis Vuittons and houses.